Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 10, 1994 TAG: 9403100172
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
Nixon's meetings with Yeltsin and other government officials were all canceled as a result of his talks with Yeltsin's opponents, particularly the man who proclaimed himself Russian president during October's uprising.
Yeltsin revoked the bodyguards and black Zil limousine his government had put at Nixon's disposal. He did the same thing two years ago to former president Mikhail Gorbachev.
Yeltsin said President Clinton had distanced himself from Nixon's private visit, but Clinton said Wednesday he believed the Russian president should meet Nixon.
``It's up to President Yeltsin whom he sees and doesn't see,'' Clinton said. ``I wish he would see him [Nixon] because I think they'd enjoy talking to one another.''
Yeltsin was in no mood for a friendly chat.
``How can one do something like that? Coming to a country and looking for some sort of stains here?'' he said, scowling and jabbing his finger in the air to emphasize his disgust.
``No, after that, I will not [receive Nixon]!'' he said. ``Nor will the government. . . . So that he knows: Russia is a great country, after all. And playing with it like this, doing it this way . . . this won't work now.''
A Nixon adviser accused Yeltsin of overreacting.
``I am surprised . . . that President Yeltsin would not find anybody but an 81-year-old former U.S. president who is his friend and Russia's friend to reassert his macho and to tell us that Russia is a great country,'' Dmitry Simes told reporters.
He said Nixon has suffered bigger setbacks.
``He is puzzled; he is disappointed,'' Simes said. ``But you know that, with his long career, and 81, he is a big boy, and he has had his share of disappointments in his life, some of them much more serious than this one.''
Clinton said he talked to Nixon before Nixon's 10-day trip to Russia that envisaged visits with hard-liners shunned by the U.S. administration, including ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
``And I said he should meet with whomever he wanted and I'd be interested to hear his reports when he got back,'' Clinton said Wednesday in the Oval Office.
Nixon, who had the famous ``kitchen debate'' with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev during his first trip to Moscow in 1959, has been a frequent visitor to Russia since leaving office in 1974. He has often urged greater U.S. support for Yeltsin and Russia's reformers.
It was Nixon's meeting Monday with former Vice President Alexander Rutskoi that most insulted Yeltsin. Rutskoi, who was freed from prison last month, was named acting president by the former hard-line Parliament last fall when it tried to oust Yeltsin.
Nixon on Tuesday had praised Yeltsin's government for allowing him to see members of the opposition, something his Soviet predecessors refused to do.
``But now, at least with all the problems, and there are many problems, the government welcomes the opportunity for visitors, even semiofficial visitors, to see members of the opposition,'' Nixon had told reporters.
by CNB